Jonathan Owens

Meteorologist

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I'm Jonathan Owens, your NEWSCHANNEL 5 This Morning and NEWSCHANNEL 5 At Noon Meteorologist. I hope to bring you an accurate and dependable forecast each day and make the weather fun to track. All in all, I've been involved with tracking the weather since 1993, or when I was about 13 years old.

I grew up in the Cumberland Mountains of Virginia in a small coal-mining town named Haysi. Even in my elementary school days, I knew I wanted to be involved in weather and broadcasting. When I was 8 years old, I convinced my parents take me to the local radio station. After about five minutes in the building, I knew broadcasting was the job for me.

About the same time I read "Everyday Weather and How it Works" for a class assignment. The last chapter was titled "Build Your Own Weather Station" so I decided to go ahead and do just that. From then on I was hooked on the weather.

By high school I had combined the two fields and decided to be a TV weatherman. I started off by tracking storms and reporting the weather from my home for local TV stations and the hometown newspaper when I was 13. I contributed to a weather column in the newspaper from 1993-2001. While I was doing that, I also become the Virginia State Coordinator for the American Weather Observer Supplemental Observation Network. The National Weather Service even installed an official weather station in my backyard when I was 16. There I was, a teenager, making official reports for the National Weather Service on a daily basis! I ran that weather station until 2001 when I left to attend college.

I completed my Bachelor of Science Degree in Geosciences/Meteorology at Mississippi State University (the on-campus program) and I also hold an Associate of Arts and Sciences Degree in General Studies (with an emphasis in Broadcast Production and Journalism) from Southwest Virginia Community College.

While at NEWSCHANNEL 5, I've earned the National Weather Association (NWA) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Seals of Approval.

Before coming to the Rio Grande Valley, I worked at WDIC Oldies Radio in Clintwood, VA from 1999-2001, then at WLZA Lazer 96 in Starkville, MS from 2001-2002. While studying meteorology at Mississippi State, I was a weekend weathercaster for WABG-TV in Greenville, MS from 2002-2004. I later installed Doppler radar storm tracking systems for Baron Services at stations in Detroit, Toledo, and Nashville before coming to NEWSCHANNEL 5 in July 2004.

When I don't have my eyes on the sky, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, grilling/barbequing, traveling (road trip!), sleeping, spending too much time on the computer, photography, and reading. I also like trying out the latest electronic gadgets and gizmos.

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